Archaeology
of a
San Francisco Neighborhood

This Web site was funded
by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).

It was created by Anthropological
Studies Center (ASC).

Drinking

Artifacts
associated with drinking alcohol are common on nineteenth-century urban
archaeological sites. Archaeologists find not only beer, wine, ale,
cordial and liquor bottles, but also delicate glassware, sturdy tumblers,
pitchers and decanters.

The second half of the nineteenth century was a time of great upheaval
in American culture. Large numbers of immigrants were arriving from
Europe, adding to the social tensions created by industrialization and
the rapid expansion of America's cities. The choice of alcohol and beverages
became one of the ways in which people expressed their sense of class,
ethnicity and ambitions. Take beer for instance. Americans drank very
little of it during the early 1800s, preferring whiskey, liquor and
cider. Beer was popularized by German immigrants who introduced improved
brewing techniques to America. By 1890, half of all the alcohol drunk
in America was beer.

Most beer was consumed not at home, but in the all-male environment
of the working class saloons that dotted the street corners of towns
and cities. For working class men, the saloon was the center of their
neighborhood's social world. Jack London called them the "poor
men’s clubs". The preference of working class men for drinking
in saloons may be reflected in archaeological deposits associated with
working class households, in which it is common to find very few alcohol
bottles.

Beer was shunned by many in the middle class because of its associations
with immigrants and working class men. Middle class reformers during
the 1870s and 1880s campaigned to close saloons, and promoted temperance
or the abstinence
from alcohol. Did members of the Victorian middle class drink or did
they respond to the temperance campaigns? Archaeological evidence suggests
that they did drink, but in ways different from the working class. Rather
than drinking beer in the public saloon, the middle class favored wines,
cordials or liquors consumed in the privacy of their homes. Moreover,
these drinks were expensive, and serving them to guests in appropriate
glassware allowed the middle class host and hostess to demonstrate their
sophistication and wealth.